Effective December 24, 2013, CityWest will be closing its storefront at 174 5th Street in Kitimat. There will continue to be workers on site, and the rest of the office will operate as usual, but there will not be a customer entrance to the building.

While it was a difficult decision to make, the store’s location was not meeting the company’s expectations in terms of foot traffic and brand exposure.

“The decision to make the closure ultimately came down to the storefront’s location, which just wasn’t giving us the exposure in the residential and business community as we anticipated,” said Sean Carberry, Director of Customer Service at CityWest. “We have also found in our customer surveys that people prefer to contact us by phone, so we expect minimal customer impact when the storefront closes.”

There will be no job losses as a result of the closure. The closure allows CityWest to re-organize its Kitimat workforce, which will result in a better customer experience for installations and troubleshooting.

And the CityWest presence won’t be disappearing from the community of Kitimat. The company is planning on a variety of events for 2014, when it will set up temporary selling booths in more central locations in Kitimat, offering some great deals to new and existing customers.

“The storefront just wasn’t doing what we thought it would do,” said Carberry, “and we’re confident that these selling booths will help us interact with residential and business customers in a more accessible and convenient manner.”